The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks dipped 0.21 points, or 0.01 percent, to 1,475.07. More stocks fell than rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bond prices were little changed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held at 2.40 percent.

The stock market snapped an eight-week string of gains last week.

The major stock indexes opened lower on Monday and then wavered between small gains and losses. By midmorning they had inched back up into positive territory, hovering just above their Friday closing levels for the rest of the day.

While trading was mostly subdued, investors bid up shares in companies at the center of merger-related news.

Toymaker Mattel soared 20.7 percent following a report that rival Hasbro made an offer to buy the company. Mattel was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500, rising $3.02 to $17.64. Hasbro added $5.39, or 5.9 percent, to $96.84.

Mall owner GGP jumped 8.3 percent after Brookfield Property Partners offered to buy the rest of the company for $14 billion, or $23 a share. Shares in GGP rose $1.85 to $24.05.

Traders also sent shares in Qualcomm 3 percent higher after the company rejected an unsolicited takeover offer from Broadcom worth $103 billion, or $70 a share. Qualcomm said the proposal was significantly undervalued and that a tie-up between the massive chipmakers would face substantial regulatory resistance. Shares in Qualcomm added $1.92 to $66.49. Broadcom rose 5 cents to $265.01.

Some deals failed to put investors in a buying mood.

WisdomTree Investments fell 5.5 percent after the asset management company said it will pay $611 million to buy a European division of ETF Securities. Shares in WisdomTree shed 66 cents to $11.28.

General Electric tumbled 7.2 percent after the company said it would slash its dividend in half to 12 cents per share, starting next month. The company also released annual profit projections that were well below what Wall Street had been expecting.

Chairman and CEO John Flannery, speaking to investors gathered in Boston, said the cost-cutting maneuver was part of the measures GE will undertake to make the company simpler and stronger. The stock was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500, losing $1.47 to $19.02. GE is down just under 40 percent this year.

The slide in GE weighed on the industrials sector. GE accounts for about 8 percent of the sector’s market capitalization.